600 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (FIELD FLAGG.) 



On his return he entered Williams College, where 

 ho was graduated in 1837. He studied law, was 

 admitted to the bar in 1841, and for seven years 

 was a partner in his brother's firm. In 1849 he 

 sailed for San Francisco. On the passage from 

 Panama nearly all the passengers were attacked 

 with Chagres fever, and 

 Mr. Field, applying the 

 experience he had 

 gained in Smyrna, act- 

 ed as nurse and assist- 

 ant surgeon. In San 

 Francisco he opened a 

 law office in an adobe 

 hut, but clients came 

 not. Hearing that a 

 new town was about to 

 be founded at Nye's 

 Ranch, he went there, 

 bought 65 lots on cred- 

 it, and when the town 

 of Yubaville was organ- 

 ized in January, 1850, 

 he was elected alcalde, and soon afterward 

 was appointed justice of the peace. Yubaville 

 became Marysville, and for some time Mr. Field 

 was the entire government. At this time he was 

 particularly severe on thieves, and, as he had 

 no place to imprison them, his customary sen- 

 tence was 50 lashes. The rough element under- 

 took to terrorize him, but soon found that he 

 was a man of exceptional courage, and, further- 

 more, that his administration was supported by 

 the army. In the autumn of 1850 he was elected 

 to the first Legislature under the State Consti- 

 tution, and as a member of its Judiciary Com- 

 mittee he prepared a code for the government 

 of the State courts, and drew up civil, criminal, 

 and mining laws that were afterward generally 

 adopted in the new States of the West. About 

 this time, as a result of a bitter quarrel among 

 leading men of the State, Mr. Field was disbarred 

 by Judge Turner, but he was reinstated by the 

 Supreme Court. While debarred from practice 

 he lost all his fortune in speculations. In six 

 years after his reinstatement, however, he built 

 up a large and lucrative practice. In 1857 he was 

 elected a justice of the Supreme Court of Cali- 

 fornia for the term of six years beginning Jan. 

 1, 1858. Before his term began a vacancy in 

 the court occurred, and he was appointed for the 

 unexpired term by a governor politically opposed 

 to him, taking the seat in October, 1857. Early 

 in September, 1859, David S. Terry, chief justice 

 of the court, resigned his place in order to fight 

 the duel with Senator David C. Broderick which 

 resulted in the killing of the latter, and Justice 

 Field became chief justice. He held this office 

 till 1803, when, Congress having created the Tenth 

 Circuit, President Lincoln appointed him an as- 

 sociate justice of the United States Supreme 

 Court. In providing for an additional member 

 of this court it was the intention of Congress 

 that the appointment should go to a person fa- 

 miliar with the conflicting titles and with the 

 mining laws of the Pacific coast. As Judge Field 

 had framed the principal of these laws, President 

 Lincoln recognized the wish of the people imme- 

 diately concerned for his appointment, and the 

 Senate confirmed the nomination unanimously. 

 In April, 1807, Justice Field tendered his resigna- 

 tion, to take effect on Dec. 1 following. He had 

 thus held the office thirty-four years, six months, 

 and twelve days, and when he retired he was 

 the oldest member of the court both in age and 

 in length of service. During this period he saw 

 two whole courts come and go, and sat with 



three chief justices. He alone had written 620 

 opinions in this court, which, with 57 in the Cir- 

 cuit Court and 365 in the Supreme Court of Cali- 

 fornia, made a total of 1,042 cases decided by 

 him. His career was replete with romance and 

 exciting occurrences. In 1873 he was appointed 

 by the Governor of California one of three com- 

 missioners to prepare amendments to the codes 

 of the State. When, in 1877, Congress created 

 the Electoral Commission it designated him as- 

 one of the five justices of the Supreme Court who 

 should be members of it. In 1880 he was a con- 

 spicuous candidate for the Democratic presiden- 

 tial nomination. In 1888 he sentenced ex-Judge 

 Terry to a brief imprisonment for attacking the 

 court officers with a bowie knife in the course of 

 a sensational trial (see Annual Cyclopaedia for 

 1889, page 649, article TERRY). Terry swore 

 vengeance, and on Aug. 14, 1889, made a per- 

 sonal assault on Judge Field in a railroad dining- 

 room at Lathrop, Cal., for which he was at once- 

 shot dead by United States Deputy-Marshal 

 David Nagle, who, unknown to Judge Field, had 

 been ordered to accompany him for protection 

 against threatened assault. Judge Field received 

 the degree of LL. D. from Williams College 

 in 1864. 



Field, Walbridge Abner, Chief Justice, born 

 in Springfield, Vt., April 26, 1833; died in Boston, 

 Mass., July 15, 1899. He was graduated at Dart- 

 mouth College in 1855, studied law at Harvard, 

 and was admitted to the bar in 1860. From 

 1865 to 1869 he was assistant United States dis- 

 trict attorney for Massachusetts, and in 1869-'70* 

 Assistant Attorney-General of the United States. 

 He was representative from Massachusetts in 

 Congress in 1876-77, but declined to be a candi- 

 date at the next election, and in February, 1881, 

 was appointed to the supreme bench of Massa- 

 chusetts, and in 1890 became Chief Justice. 



Fisher, George Purnell, jurist, born in Mil- 

 ford, Del., Oct. 13, 1817; died in Washington, D. C., 

 Feb. 11, 1899. He was graduated at Dickinson 

 College in 1838, and in 1840 he was elected clerk 

 of the Delaware Senate, in 1843 a member of 

 the Legislature, and in 1846 Secretary of State 

 of Delaware. He served as commissioner to set- 

 tle claims against Brazil, and in 1857-'60 he was, 

 Attorney-General of Delaware. At the outbreak 

 of the civil war he raised a regiment for the 

 National army, but his election to Congress pre- 

 vented him from taking the field. He served on 

 the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In 1863 he 

 was appointed an associate justice of the Su- 

 preme Court of the District of Columbia. In 1870 

 he resigned this office to become United States 

 attorney for the District of Columbia. In 1875 

 he resigned the office, and, after service in the 

 Claims Bureau of the State Department, he was. 

 appointed first auditor of the Treasury in 1889. 



Flagg, Jared Bradley, painter and clergyman, 

 born in New Haven, Conn., June 16, 1820; died 

 in New York, Sept. 25, 1899. He was a brother 

 of George Whiting Flagg, the painter, and studied 

 with his brother and Washington Allston. When 

 sixteen years old he made his first exhibition 

 at the National Academy, a portrait of his fa- 

 ther, and when nineteen he exhibited Angelo and 

 Isabella, a study inspired by Measure for Meas- 

 ure. He opened his first studio in Hartford, 

 Conn., and his second in New York, in 1849. In 

 1850 he was elected a National Academician. 

 He made a specialty of portraits. He studied 

 theology privately and at Trinity College, Hart- 

 ford, and was ordained in the Protestant Epis- 

 copal Church in 1854. He served St. James's 

 Church, Birmingham, Conn., as rector several 



